August 14, 2007 at 09:43Design Studio Review: Naoto Fukasawa
According to how much resonance the publication about designer Sam Heckt received , I want to continue and complete the topic that began in that article.
The concept of the environment, as practice shows, is not always perceived adequately. Often the environment or context is considered as something separate from the person inherent in a certain crowd. Perhaps this is how the modernists of the 50-60s considered the environment, and judging by our "sleeping bags", they managed to bring their views to life. But at the present time in the West and the East (that is, not with us;)) a slightly different trend is emerging - the environment for each person individually, for personality and character, for the subconscious. Europeanizing the expression of makoto, I can say this: the manifestation of the nature of a thing is a subtle allusion to the subconscious and genetic memory of a person about a thing. It seems that is exactly the way the designerNaoto Fukasawa explains your theory of "body memory."
Mobile phone
Unfortunately, within the framework of one article it is difficult to grasp everything interesting that is connected with a particular author. Therefore, I will try to reveal what was not told about Hekt here. Fortunately there is a reason.
So, instead of pouring water about who was born-married where, I will go further - in the 20s of the XX century and further in the 50s. It was then that at this time the world was overwhelmed by the theory of psychoanalysis and existentialism. Freud, Berdyaev, Marcel Duchamp, Jackson Pollock, Dali and a lot of other representatives of philosophy and culture took advantage of the moment (2 world wars - which is no reason) and began to study their reflections, delve into the subconscious and come to conclusions that are important today: the body has memory and man is a person through these memories. The body remembers not only what happened to him in the womb, during birth, in childhood, and yesterday, but also has prehistoric memories — the sound of the wind, the singing of birds, the roughness of the stone and the softness of the grass — all this is in “active memory”.
We can also say whether a thing is pure or not just by looking at it. Light or heavy - seeing another person carry it.
Humidifier
“Developing the idea of the role of instinct in design, Naoto and I came up with the concept of“ active memory ”. Our mind and body are associated with specific objects, even when we are not aware of this. We can feel the size of a pack of chewing gum in our pocket, although we don’t touch it with our hand. Our memory is so strong that if you put a piece of wood of the same size in your pocket, you will feel something familiar. We began to use this phenomenon when developing products for which there is no developed technology and a well-defined typology. And the point is not in nostalgia, but in the deep attitude to design, ”says Sam Hekt about working at IDEOwith Naoto Fukasawa. And he adds: “Successful sales of an item depend on a number of factors, and one of them is the presence of an internal connection between technology and a person. Since people know what a telephone is, they basically guess what to do with it. But when it was necessary to come up with the design of an MP3 player - a technology that did not exist before - the direction of the movement prompted Walkman, thanks to which an idea of a personal music player was formed. All these devices are constantly changing, but, as a rule, the most successful models are those with the most natural typology. ”
DVD-MD player + remote control / portable MD player
Naoto Fukasawa is one of the most sought after Japanese designers in the world. But, the strangest thing, while one of the most sought-after designers in the homeland. He heads. oversees or advises about 5 companies at a time. As the design director of Plus-minus-zero , ± 0, he heads the technical department in the giant Muji , advises (and previously served as director) the global company IDEO. He also created (together with IDEO and Sam Hekt) and manages the creative workshop Without Thought! (“Without thinking!”)
LCD-TV and remote control, developed during the study Without thought !, and is included in the + -0 product line
Given all of the above, now you can carefully look at the work of Fukasawa. In each work, we can notice the very subtle contact between a person and an object. The phone in shape and touch resembles a stone, it is pleasant to twirl it in your hands or just squeeze it, feeling it is “wrong”, the remote control mixes the feeling of joy, protection and tenderness. I especially like the humidifier — this, like a stone phone, is a particularly accurate indicator of Fukasawa’s ideas. Cleanliness and freshness are concentrated in this form! The DVD and MD player is cleared of everything superfluous, only the basic functions are brought up, almost to a toy sense (by the way, another typology became clear - video is entertainment, game, fun).
Photos from the international design exhibition in Cologne andStockholm
How open the mind of this person can be judged by the unique project Without Thought! ..
He brought together designers from various companies that produce various equipment, phones, cars, etc. These are people from competing corporations and occupying approximately the same positions - art director, chief designer, etc. Combining them under one roof, he chose a theme for the vector and gave three days for reflection. As a result, creative people who work for large corporations, but who are engaged there in organizational work rather than creativity, united into creative groups and brainstormed to break down such barriers as competition and limitations within their own specialization.
8 "TV for ± 0
The project was conceived as a three-day workshop, stimulating creative energy for development and visualization. But after two years (and, accordingly, two studies), the organizers decided to turn the project into something more promising. This time the task was set as follows: three days for a brainstorm with the further implementation of the project. The project participants continued to maintain contact and an atmosphere of cooperation for three months to bring their ideas to fruition. Later, objects were exhibited at the Japanese progressive design exhibition OZONE and ordinary people could feel and try out these intuitive gizmos in action (the name of the project is translated from Japanese as “Instinct does not think”).
The results of the project “Without thinking!”
Each exhibition had its own idea, theme. In one - it was a handrail in the subway, in the other - the adaptation of IT-technologies for clothes. But on the topic of the last exhibition I want to draw attention. “Speaking of design, one cannot but admit that the surprise that we experience at the first glance at the subject is the first“ Wow! ” - important. But the true essence of design is in “Wow!”, Which we pronounce later, when using the thing, we discover something that we did not notice before ... ”
And finally, as it happened, I want to show my favorite thing from this author: a CD player that has only two options - “on” and “off”. The feeling of Zen with this thing I just rolls over%) What I wish you!
Invisible speakers in the wall-mounted CD player occupy the entire front of the device.
Its simple form resembles a fan - I think the allusion is clear?
Some links:
UPD : I forgot to mention the sources: MONITOR Unlimited # 19, 25, 26; designboom.com; plusminuszero.com; imm-cologne.com ; as well as the above.
The concept of the environment, as practice shows, is not always perceived adequately. Often the environment or context is considered as something separate from the person inherent in a certain crowd. Perhaps this is how the modernists of the 50-60s considered the environment, and judging by our "sleeping bags", they managed to bring their views to life. But at the present time in the West and the East (that is, not with us;)) a slightly different trend is emerging - the environment for each person individually, for personality and character, for the subconscious. Europeanizing the expression of makoto, I can say this: the manifestation of the nature of a thing is a subtle allusion to the subconscious and genetic memory of a person about a thing. It seems that is exactly the way the designerNaoto Fukasawa explains your theory of "body memory."
Mobile phone
Unfortunately, within the framework of one article it is difficult to grasp everything interesting that is connected with a particular author. Therefore, I will try to reveal what was not told about Hekt here. Fortunately there is a reason.
So, instead of pouring water about who was born-married where, I will go further - in the 20s of the XX century and further in the 50s. It was then that at this time the world was overwhelmed by the theory of psychoanalysis and existentialism. Freud, Berdyaev, Marcel Duchamp, Jackson Pollock, Dali and a lot of other representatives of philosophy and culture took advantage of the moment (2 world wars - which is no reason) and began to study their reflections, delve into the subconscious and come to conclusions that are important today: the body has memory and man is a person through these memories. The body remembers not only what happened to him in the womb, during birth, in childhood, and yesterday, but also has prehistoric memories — the sound of the wind, the singing of birds, the roughness of the stone and the softness of the grass — all this is in “active memory”.
We can also say whether a thing is pure or not just by looking at it. Light or heavy - seeing another person carry it.
Humidifier
“Developing the idea of the role of instinct in design, Naoto and I came up with the concept of“ active memory ”. Our mind and body are associated with specific objects, even when we are not aware of this. We can feel the size of a pack of chewing gum in our pocket, although we don’t touch it with our hand. Our memory is so strong that if you put a piece of wood of the same size in your pocket, you will feel something familiar. We began to use this phenomenon when developing products for which there is no developed technology and a well-defined typology. And the point is not in nostalgia, but in the deep attitude to design, ”says Sam Hekt about working at IDEOwith Naoto Fukasawa. And he adds: “Successful sales of an item depend on a number of factors, and one of them is the presence of an internal connection between technology and a person. Since people know what a telephone is, they basically guess what to do with it. But when it was necessary to come up with the design of an MP3 player - a technology that did not exist before - the direction of the movement prompted Walkman, thanks to which an idea of a personal music player was formed. All these devices are constantly changing, but, as a rule, the most successful models are those with the most natural typology. ”
DVD-MD player + remote control / portable MD player
Naoto Fukasawa is one of the most sought after Japanese designers in the world. But, the strangest thing, while one of the most sought-after designers in the homeland. He heads. oversees or advises about 5 companies at a time. As the design director of Plus-minus-zero , ± 0, he heads the technical department in the giant Muji , advises (and previously served as director) the global company IDEO. He also created (together with IDEO and Sam Hekt) and manages the creative workshop Without Thought! (“Without thinking!”)
LCD-TV and remote control, developed during the study Without thought !, and is included in the + -0 product line
Given all of the above, now you can carefully look at the work of Fukasawa. In each work, we can notice the very subtle contact between a person and an object. The phone in shape and touch resembles a stone, it is pleasant to twirl it in your hands or just squeeze it, feeling it is “wrong”, the remote control mixes the feeling of joy, protection and tenderness. I especially like the humidifier — this, like a stone phone, is a particularly accurate indicator of Fukasawa’s ideas. Cleanliness and freshness are concentrated in this form! The DVD and MD player is cleared of everything superfluous, only the basic functions are brought up, almost to a toy sense (by the way, another typology became clear - video is entertainment, game, fun).
Photos from the international design exhibition in Cologne andStockholm
How open the mind of this person can be judged by the unique project Without Thought! ..
He brought together designers from various companies that produce various equipment, phones, cars, etc. These are people from competing corporations and occupying approximately the same positions - art director, chief designer, etc. Combining them under one roof, he chose a theme for the vector and gave three days for reflection. As a result, creative people who work for large corporations, but who are engaged there in organizational work rather than creativity, united into creative groups and brainstormed to break down such barriers as competition and limitations within their own specialization.
8 "TV for ± 0
The project was conceived as a three-day workshop, stimulating creative energy for development and visualization. But after two years (and, accordingly, two studies), the organizers decided to turn the project into something more promising. This time the task was set as follows: three days for a brainstorm with the further implementation of the project. The project participants continued to maintain contact and an atmosphere of cooperation for three months to bring their ideas to fruition. Later, objects were exhibited at the Japanese progressive design exhibition OZONE and ordinary people could feel and try out these intuitive gizmos in action (the name of the project is translated from Japanese as “Instinct does not think”).
The results of the project “Without thinking!”
Each exhibition had its own idea, theme. In one - it was a handrail in the subway, in the other - the adaptation of IT-technologies for clothes. But on the topic of the last exhibition I want to draw attention. “Speaking of design, one cannot but admit that the surprise that we experience at the first glance at the subject is the first“ Wow! ” - important. But the true essence of design is in “Wow!”, Which we pronounce later, when using the thing, we discover something that we did not notice before ... ”
And finally, as it happened, I want to show my favorite thing from this author: a CD player that has only two options - “on” and “off”. The feeling of Zen with this thing I just rolls over%) What I wish you!
Invisible speakers in the wall-mounted CD player occupy the entire front of the device.
Its simple form resembles a fan - I think the allusion is clear?
Some links:
- Previous Reviews of design studios on Habré:
- You can also look at the works of N. Fukasawa:
- Interview and biography from Designboom
- Herald Tribune article
UPD : I forgot to mention the sources: MONITOR Unlimited # 19, 25, 26; designboom.com; plusminuszero.com; imm-cologne.com ; as well as the above.